Godzilla 2016

TOKYO — Ten years after “Godzilla: Final Wars,” the last Toho Godzilla movie, trampled across the screen, the Japanese studio is gearing up to make another film featuring its iconic character.

The movie is scheduled to begin production in the summer of 2015 and bow theatrically in 2016, Toho sources have revealed. Details, including director and cast, have yet to be announced.

The inspiration is the success of Gareth Edward’s 2014 “Godzilla,” which earned $525 million worldwide and JPY3.2 billion ($26 million) in Japan, with Toho and Warner Bros. Japan co-distributing.

Toho has launched what it calls the Godzilla Strategic Conference (Godzi-Con), a committee of studio executives and directors whose aim is to reboot the Godzilla brand, including the new “Godzilla” pic.

The head of the new Godzilla project, veteran producer Taichi Ueda, told the press that, though Toho will not spend the $200 million reportedly lavished on the American “Godzilla,” “The time has come for Japan to make a film that will not lose to Hollywood.” Ueda added that Toho hopes to make Godzilla a character that “will represent Japan and be loved around the world” by the time of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

As part of its effort to reacquaint a new generation of Japanese with the country’s signature monster, Toho plans to erect a giant Godzilla statue in its Toho Cinemas Shinjuku theater by April of next year.

Meanwhile, Edwards has been signed to make “Godzilla 2,” which is set for a June 8, 2018, bow, with Legendary and Warner Bros. again co-producing.

The 28th Godzilla pic since Ishiro Honda’s first in 1954, Ryuhei Kitamura’s “Godzilla: Final Wars” earned a disappointing $12 million following its 2004 release, prompting Toho to put the character into cold storage.

Evangelion director Hideaki Anno is the chief director and writer of TOHO's upcoming Godzilla film, the first new Japanese one in the franchise in 12 years. Shinji Higuchi, the director of Japan Sinks, Nobō no Shiro, and the upcoming live-action Attack on Titan films, is directing the new film and serving as special effect director as well.

The two longtime tokusatsu (special-effects) fans have been close friends for three decades. They previously collaborated on "Kyoshinhei Tokyo ni Arawaru" (Giant God Warrior Appears in Tokyo), Ghibli's live-action tokusatsu short. Anno planned and wrote this short that draws inspiration from the Giant God Warriors in Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind manga and anime film, and Higuchi directed the short.

Higuchi worked as a storyboarder for the Evangelion television series and the three recent films, and he served as assistant director on Royal Space Force - The Wings of Honnęamise. (Anno was an animation director on that film.)

Higuchi has also served as the special effects director for the Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, Gamera 2: Advent of Legion, and Gamera 3: Awakening of Irys films. With Higuchi's collaboration, Anno curated a tokusatsu exhibition that drew 291,575 visitors at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo in 2012.

Anno (left in photo) received the offer to work on the film at the end of January 2013. Mentally exhausted after 2012's Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo, he declined the offer once. However, TOHO's earnestness and Higuchi's enthusiasm eventually won him over, and he agreed to work on the project.

Anno is working on Studio Khara's fourth and final new Evangelion film, and the new TOHO Godzilla film is limited in budget and production time compared to Hollywood. However, Anno said that he has pride in the new Godzilla project as a film, and is making both that film and the new Evangelion film with all his effort.

Higuchi (right in photo) entered the film industry when he worked on the 1984 Godzilla film, so he remarked with delight on directing the new Godzilla film, "Finally, the time has come." He added, "Playtime is over," and acknowledged the pressure on him. Still, he vowed, "Next year, I will deliver the greatest and worst nightmare to everyone."

TOHO unveiled an image (pictured above right) of the foot of its new Godzilla on Wednesday. According to Cinema Today, the foot is indicative of the new Godzilla being the tallest one yet, towering over the 108-meter-tall (about 355-foot-tall) incarnation in Gareth Edwards and Legendary Pictures' 2014 Hollywood film. The setting of TOHO's new Godzilla flm is Japan.

Anno is now writing the new Godzilla film's screenplay. Filming begins this fall, and TOHO will release the film in theaters next summer.

Re: Godzilla 2016

Let’s get to the point: the first trailer for Toho’s reboot of the Godzilla franchise, Godzilla Resurgence, dropped earlier today and in a word, it’s breathtaking. Showcasing a back to basics approach to Kaiju films, it draws heavily from the 1954 original, released when Japan was still recovering from World War II and inspired by the devastation of the war’s final days. Here, we see that earlier film’s depiction of remote, godlike terror with modern effects and techniques. Sure, the monster still looks like a man in a suit and yet, it’s genuinely terrifying. It helps, of course, that the the scale of the attack is both distant and personal, as shown by Godzilla towering over the city he’s plodding through, and the focus on on-the-ground devastation. Watch the clip above now.

Announced back in 2014 in the wake of Legendary’s successful American take on the classic Kaiju, Godzilla Resurgence is a full reboot of the 30-odd film series, and the first to come out of Japan since 2004’s Godzilla: Final Wars. Co-directed by Neon Genesis Evangelion co-creator Hideaki Anno and Gamera storyboard artist Shinji Higuchi from a script by Hideaki, it hits Japanese theaters July 29.

Re: Godzilla vs. Evangelion?

Anno Hideaki, director of the new Godzilla movie coming to screens in Japan on July 29th has announced leading up to the hype that Toho Studios is also making a "Godzilla V.S. Evangelion" movie, pitting Anno's best known work "Evangelion" against the legendary monster.
While little details have been reveiled about this upcoming "Godzilla V.S. Evangelion" movie, we had a peak at the image boards during the press conference. Upon the backdrop of a ruined city are the familiar silhouettes of the monster and the robot. A fierce battle is brewing!

The official sites of New Godzilla and Evangelion both carried the new movie visual along with the catchcopy "The Savage God V.S. Giant Bio-Machine Mecha" on April 1st. Furthermore, the presale tickets for the movie "New Godzilla" to be released on April 23rd will come with a clear file that has the visuals of the "Godzilla V.S. Evangelion" seen above. Only 55,555 copies of this file will be distributed worldwide. On top of that, special collaboration goods including "Tenugui" hand towels, T-shirts, iron-on patches, key holders and more for fans of both series!

What makes it even more exciting is that some of the best createors in Japan will be working on this movie. It was revealed that the movie visual was specially illustrated by famous anime director Maeda Mahiro, who also worked on "Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo" among other titles. Who will be next in building up hype for this much anticipated movie?

The upcoming "New Godzilla" is the first Godzilla movie in 12 years and is staffed by many who were involved in the production of the Evangelion series, as well as big names in the industry such as screenwriter and director Anno Hideaki, as well as special effects director Higushi Shinji. In the lead role is actor Hasegawa Hiroki, who also starred in the Attack on Titan series.

Re: Godzilla 2016

Social media was abuzz in April after producer and distributor Adam Torel of Third Window Films told the Sankei Shimbun newspaper that the quality of movies made in Japan had fallen low.

One of his points was that the so-called “production committee” system, whereby multiple partners invest in a film project, results in a highly conservative product since a director is under the watch of multiple corporate interests.

In spite of its critics — and Torel is not alone — this long-held system is not fading; rather, it might be gaining steam as players in the market continue to benefit from the process.

The pooling of so many companies together (possibly up to 12) provides the system’s greatest rewards: easier access to finance and the spreading of risk. But, as Torel implied, it may also end in a bland production.

There is, however, no disputing the results at the Japanese box office. For 2015, revenues from domestic films exceeded those from foreign movies for the eighth year in a row. Three committee films made the top 10 among Japan’s box office grossers in 2015: “The Boy and the Beast,” “Hero,” and “Detective Conan: Sunflowers of Inferno.” All surpassed 1 billion yen ($9.34 million) domestically, a key number for success, though none did strong business abroad.

Yet Japan’s trade ministry has increasingly sought in recent years to derive more overseas revenue from the country’s entertainment content, especially films. However, the complicated production committee system can pose a stumbling block regarding decision-making, especially in tapping ancillary markets.
Yoshiki Takahashi, a writer for film magazine Eiga Hiho, says that it is not a matter of Japan’s system being broken; instead, it is about the domestic market being top priority.

“One can say that there is this idea that Japanese movies have a unique form of expression, but that doesn’t mean they satisfy what is expected globally,” he says. “To make a successful movie overseas, I think it would be necessary to target this expectation. However, this idea is not shared within the Japanese film industry.”

The committee behind a film can arise from the progression of a property from one medium to another. The publisher and commercial broadcaster behind a franchise’s previous run as a comic and television series typically get seats on the committee. For example, in March, distributor Gaga announced it was venturing into production with multiple partners for the making of “Itazura na Kiss — The Movie,” a live-action film based on a popular 1990s manga series.

“We thought it could be successful from a business standpoint,” says Koji Hyakutake, the chief operating officer of Gaga. “The story is popular not only in Japan, but also across Asia, including in South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. It started as a manga, then it became a TV drama and an animation, but it has never been a movie.”

One company working to ease this process is All Nippon Entertainment Works, which has partnered with Imagine Entertainment for a live-action adaptation of the animation “Tiger & Bunny.” “Japanese companies have too often just been ‘rights holders,’ where projects are optioned with no further involvement from the Japanese creators,” says CEO Sandy Climan. “ANEW finances the development of projects where there is a true partnership between the Japanese rights holders and the U.S. producing partners.”

Re: Godzilla 2016

THR:Japan Box Office: 'Godzilla Resurgence' Becomes Biggest Live-Action Film of Year With $60M

Originally Posted by Gavin J. Blair

Godzilla Resurgence (Shin Gojira) climbed one spot back up the box office charts in Japan to No. 2 this weekend during its sixth weekend of release, taking another $3.2 million to bring its total in the country to more than $60 million from 4.1 million admissions.

The revival of the iconic monster franchise by Toho is now the biggest live-action hit of the year in Japan and has already surpassed the studio's initial forecasts. The 29th installment of the franchise has also taken total admissions over the 100 million mark, the highest for any live-action series in Japan.

Your Name (Kimi no Na wa), the manga-to-anime adaptation by Makoto Shinkai, held on to the top spot after its big opening last weekend, pulling in another $11.6 million to take its total to $38 million.

As in the original 1954 classic Godzilla the Shin Godzilla soundtrack is ominous, powerful, and memorable. Although the film provides a mix of Showa and Heisei sound effects and tracks, its original score is full of meaning capturing the despair that gripped Japan and Tokyo when Shodai Godzilla came ashore. To capture the essence of the terror of Godzilla both now and then, I’ve created a series of slides juxtaposing scenes from Gojira with the lyrics from Shin Godzilla. The meaning of Shin Godzilla very much lies in these lyrics. Perhaps the film could be seen as an opera performance that must be careful listen to and followed in order grasp it meaning. The film is dominated by dialogue and discourse but these vocals convey so much and guide the viewer’s like a narrator of story. The lyrics function like the chorus in a tragedy performing heard behind the film’s dense dialogue and providing an interpretive frame for the moviegoer from act to act. This is reminiscent of the use of the girl chorus in 1954.